IPTD-479
CSRR rule comment and feedback analysis tools
Description
This project will explore the potential of AI and LLMs to be leveraged in the effort to gain improvements in both quality of insights and efficiency in large-scale efforts to collect, process, understand and respond to feedback and comments from constituents. The initial effort will focus on the SRRA Amendments rule proposal that is expected to generate thousands of comments. One anticipated deliverable is a general tool into which any large file(s) of comment text may be loaded, that can effectively answer a wide range of questions about that set of comments. Other tools to be considered include those that can streamline the production of formal responses for publication and role-playing tools to anticipate comments ahead of proposals.
Project Justification
Improving the quality of insight from public input is aligned with the mandates and interest for constituent input in the first place. Speeding up the process, with improved clarity and understanding will lead to efficiency and effectiveness improvements in government action and can shorten time to execute large projects and implement regulation that is most aligned with public interest.
Activity
Show:
Weekly Sprint meetings with NJOOI (Jesica Lax, Walker Gosrich) and DEPs CSRR (Joe Aiello and Het Patel) to develop app. Het left State service and his role is being picked up by Dhruv Patel starting April 21, 2025. Next Sprint scheduled for 4/24/2025
SRRA Amendments
Rule proposal 10/21/2024
Public Hearing 11/21/2024
Written comments by 12/20/2024
Date & Time 10/21/2024 12:03 PM
Subject Notice of Rule Proposal: Site Remediation Reform Act amendments, N.J.A.C. 7:26B, 7:26C, 7:26E, and 7:26F
NJ DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION CONTAMINATED SITE REMEDIATION AND REDEVELOPMENT
Notice of Rule Proposal Site Remediation Reform Act amendments, N.J.A.C. 7:26B, 7:26C, 7:26E, and 7:26F Public Notice Take notice that the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (Department) is proposing new rules, repeals, and amendments related to the Site Remediation Reform Act amendments. A statement of the substance of the proposal follows:
The Department is proposing to amend its site remediation rules to codify and implement the provisions of P.L. 2019, c. 263 (The SRRA 2.0 Act), which concerned the remediation of contaminated sites, and amended and supplemented various parts of the statutory law. The SRRA 2.0 Act became effective on August 23, 2019, and it included the Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA), N.J.S.A. 58:10C-1 et seq., and related amendments to ISRA, N.J.S.A. 13:1K-6 et seq., the Spill Compensation Control Act (Spill Act), N.J.S.A. 58:23-11 et seq., and the Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act (Brownfield Act), N.J.S.A. 58:10B-1 et seq.
In addition to amendments related to the SRRA 2.0 Act, the Department proposes amendments to further simplify the remedial action permit process, streamline implementation of the licensed site remediation professional (LSRP) program, make technical changes and corrections, and clarify language in the chapters.
The proposal is scheduled to be published in the New Jersey Register dated October 21, 2024. A copy of the proposal is available from the Department’s website at https://dep.nj.gov/rules/notice-of-rule-proposals/; official repository libraries; and LexisNexis free public access to the New Jersey Register, https://advance.lexis.com/.
The Department will hold a public hearing on the proposal on Thursday, November 21, 2024, at 1:00 P.M. The public hearing will be conducted virtually through the Department’s video conferencing software, Microsoft Teams. A link to the virtual public hearing with telephone call-in option will be provided on the Department’s website at https://dep.nj.gov/rules/notice-of-rule-proposals/.
If you are interested in providing oral testimony or submitting written comments at the virtual public hearing, please email the Department at CSRR_rules@dep.nj.gov, no later than 5:00 P.M. on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, with your contact information (name, organization, telephone number, and email address). You must provide a valid email address, so the Department can send you an email confirming receipt of your interest to testify orally at the hearing and provide you with a separate option for a telephone call-in line if you do not have access to a computer or mobile device that can connect to Microsoft Teams. This hearing will be recorded. It is requested (but not required) that anyone providing oral testimony at the public hearing provide a copy of any prepared remarks to the Department through email.
Written comments may be submitted electronically by December 20, 2024 at https://dep.nj.gov/rules/rulecomment-form/. Each comment should be identified by the applicable N.J.A.C. citation, with the commenter’s name and affiliation following the comment. The Department encourages electronic submittal of comments. In the alternative, comments may be submitted on paper to:
Attn: DEP Docket Number: 12-24-09
Office of Legal Affairs
Department of Environmental Protection
401 East State Street, 7th Floor Mail Code 401-04L
PO Box 402 Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0402
Meeting today with Joe Eaker, Bill Zipse, Knute Jensen of DEP and Jessica Lax and Walker Gosrich of OOI. We clarified the interest in aiming for a tool or too(s) to support the APA driven rule comments process which will be common to many. We viewed the DEP rules page for examples of past outputs and pointed to the APA itself and any other guiding law. Jessica will look into the materials and confer with her team. Joe Eaker is getting the full set of comments from Judy Andrejko (CSRR’s rule comment manager). OOI will be looking at the variety of comment formats. Bill laid out a difference between very “vertical” implementations like some he has built for Forestry (vertical being a narrow focus but lots of depth into that specific areas such as Bill's Wharton-specific analysis tools and modeling integration) and horizontal implementations like we are after here, that can serve many topical or programmatic areas for a common purpose. Bill also brings lots of insights into processing of highly varied comments from his development of tools used in the analysis of public comments on the liberty State Park Plan.